GetBestOffers

Use this call to retrieve details of best offers for items being sold by
or being bid on by the user.
Offers are selected for return based on the BestOfferStatus filter (Active by default). See Enabling Best Offer for details.

Usage Details

Options:

If you have the BestOfferID value, you can submit this value along with its associated ItemID to get details about that best offer.

If you provide just an ItemID (and omit BestOfferID), you receive a list of IDs of all
best offers for that ItemID (filtered per BestOfferStatus).

If you omit both ItemID and BestOfferID, you receive a list of IDs of all
Active best offers related to the calling user--up to 1,000 IDs for best offers the
user submitted as a bidder and up to 10,000 IDs for best offers the user
received as a seller.

Note the following rules and restrictions to the use of GetBestOffers:

If the seller retrieves the best offer details for a listing--The seller sees the offer price and currency of each best offer, whether the listing is active or has ended. The seller sees email ids only for those users whose best offers have been accepted.

If a bidder retrieves the best offer details for a listing--The bidder sees his own best offer and the current state of whichever offer is currently the best offer (for example, whether or not the seller has made a counter offer).

If a non-winning bidder makes the call for a listing--If the listing has not ended, he sees the offer price and currency he submitted in his offer. If the listing has ended, he sees everyone's offer prices and currencies. He sees no email ids.

If a winning bidder makes the call for a listing--If the listing has not ended, he sees the offer price and currency he submitted in his offer. If the listing has ended, he sees everyone's offer prices and currencies. He sees his own email id but no others.

If the user is neither the seller nor a bidder for a listing--The user sees all offer prices and currencies of all bidders IF the listing has ended. Otherwise, the user sees nothing. No email ids are returned.

Input

The box below lists all fields that could be included in the call request. To learn more about an individual field or its type, click its name in the box (or scroll down to find it in the table below the box).

This optional filter controls whether only active Best Offers are retrieved or all Best Offers (even Best Offers that were declined or all no longer the "best offer"). The "All" value can only be specified if an ItemID value is also supplied in the request.Default: Active.

Applicable values:

Active

(in/out) Depending on context, this value can indicate that a buyer's Best Offer or a seller's counter offer is in the active state. The 'Active' value can also be used in the GetBestOffers request to retrieve only the Best Offers in the active state.

All

(in/out) This value is used in the GetBestOffers request to retrieve all Best Offers in all states.

The ID of the listing for which Best Offer information is to be returned. See the description of GetBestOffers for details related to who makes the request and how ItemID and BestOfferID can be omitted.Max length: 19 (Note: The eBay database specifies 38. Currently, Item IDs are usually 9 to 12 digits).

This integer value is used to specify the maximum number of entries to return in a single "page" of data. This value, along with the number of entries that match the input criteria, will determine the total pages (see PaginationResult.TotalNumberOfPages) in the result set. For most Trading API calls, the maximum value is 200 and the default value is 25 entries per page.

For GetOrders, the maximum value is 100 and the default value is 25 orders per page.

For GetUserDisputes, this value is hard-coded at 200, and any pagination input is ignored.

For GetProducts, the maximum value is 20, and any higher values are ignored.Default: 20.

Specifies the number of the page of data to return in the current call. Default is 1 for most calls. For some calls, the default is 0. Specify a positive value equal to or lower than the number of pages available (which you determine by examining the results of your initial request). See the documentation for other individual calls to determine the correct default value.Min: 1.
Default: 1.

Detail levels are instructions that define standard subsets of data to return for particular data components (e.g., each Item, Transaction, or User) within the response payload. For example, a particular detail level might cause the response to include buyer-related data in every result (e.g., for every Item), but no seller-related data. Specifying a detail level is like using a predefined attribute list in the SELECT clause of an SQL query. Use the DetailLevel element to specify the required detail level that the client application needs pertaining to the data components that are applicable to the request.

The DetailLevelCodeType defines the global list of available detail levels for all request types. Most request types support certain detail levels or none at all. If you pass a detail level that exists in the schema but that isn't valid for a particular request, eBay ignores it processes the request without it. For each request type, see the detail level tables in the Input/Output Reference to determine which detail levels are applicable and which elements are returned for each applicable detail level.

Note that DetailLevel is required input for GetMyMessages.

With GetSellerList and other calls that retrieve large data sets, please avoid using 'ReturnAll' when possible. For example, if you use GetSellerList, use GranularityLevel instead, or use GetSellerEvents. If you do use 'ReturnAll' with GetSellerList, use a small Pagination.EntriesPerPage value and a narrow EndTimeFrom/EndTimeTo date range for better performance.

Applicable values:

ReturnAll

(in) Returns all available data. With GetSellerList and other calls that retrieve large data sets, please avoid using ReturnAll when possible. For example, if you use GetSellerList, use a GranularityLevel or use the GetSellerEvents call instead. If you use ReturnAll with GetSellerList, use a small EntriesPerPage value and a short EndTimeFrom/EndTimeTo range for better performance.

Use ErrorLanguage to return error strings for the call in a different language from the language commonly associated with the site that the requesting user is registered with. Specify the standard RFC 3066 language identification tag (e.g., en_US).

Most Trading API calls support a MessageID element in the request and a CorrelationID element in the response. If you pass in a MessageID in a request, the same value will be returned in the CorrelationID field in the response. Pairing these values can help you track and confirm that a response is returned for every request and to match specific responses to specific requests. If you do not pass a MessageID value in the request, CorrelationID is not returned.

Note:GetCategories is designed to retrieve very large sets of metadata that change once a day or less often. To improve performance, these calls return cached responses when you request all available data (with no filters). When this occurs, the MessageID and CorrelationID fields aren't applicable. However, if you specify an input filter to reduce the amount of data returned, the calls retrieve the latest data (not cached). When this occurs, MessageID and CorrelationID are applicable.

You can use the OutputSelector field to restrict the data returned by a call. This field can make the call response easier to manage, especially when a large payload is returned. If you use the OutputSelector field, the output data will only include the fields you specified in the request. For example, if you are using GetItem and you only want to retrieve the URL of the View Item page (emitted in ViewItemURL field) and the item's Buy It Now price (emitted in BuyItNowPrice field), you would include two separate OutputSelector fields and set the value for each one as 'ViewItemURL' and 'BuyItNowPrice' as in the following example:

The version number of the API code that you are programming against (e.g., 859). The version you specify for a call has these basic effects: - It indicates the version of the code lists and other data that eBay should use to process your request. - It indicates the schema version you are using. You need to use a version that is greater than or equal to the lowest supported version.

For the SOAP API: If you are using the SOAP API, this field is required. Specify the version of the WSDL your application is using.

For the XML API: If you are using the XML API, this field has no effect. Instead, specify the version in the X-EBAY-API-COMPATIBILITY-LEVEL HTTP header. (If you specify Version in the body of an XML API request and it is different from the value in the HTTP header, eBay returns an informational warning that the value in the HTTP header was used instead.)

Controls whether or not to return warnings when the application passes unrecognized or deprecated elements in a request.

An unrecognized element is one that is not defined in any supported version of the schema. Schema element names are case-sensitive, so using WarningLevel can also help you remove any potential hidden bugs within your application due to incorrect case or spelling in field names before you put your application into the Production environment.

WarningLevel only validates elements; it doesn't validate XML attributes. It also doesn't control warnings related to user-entered strings or numbers, or warnings for logical errors.

We recommend that you only use this during development and debugging. Do not use this in requests performed in the Production environment.

Applicable values:

High

(in) Return warnings when the application passes unrecognized or deprecated elements in a request.

Low

(in) Do not return warnings when the application passes unrecognized or deprecated elements in a request. This is the default value if WarningLevel is not specified.

Output

The box below lists all fields that might be returned in the response. To learn more about an individual field or its type, click its name in the box (or scroll down to find it in the table below the box).

See also the Deprecated Objects link above. Fields presented in this color are deprecated, and fields presented in this color are not returned (or soon will not be returned) or are not operational (or soon will be non-operational).

All Best Offers for the item according to the filter or Best Offer id (or both) used in the input. The buyer and seller messages are returned only if the detail level is defined. Includes the buyer and seller message only if the ReturnAll detail level is used. Only returned if Best Offers have been made.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

For GetBestOffers, each BestOffer container consists of detailed information on the Best Offer/Counter Offer, including the type of Best Offer (Best Offer, Buyer/Seller Counter Offer), amount of the Best Offer/Counter Offer, and status of Best Offer/Counter Offer.

For RespondToBestOffer, each BestOffer container provides the status ('Success' or 'Failure') of the Best Offer action (Accept, Counter, or Decline), which are defined in BestOfferActionCodeType.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Email address for the user. Please see the links below to the topics related to anonymous user information and static email addresses. You cannot retrieve an email address for any user with whom you do not have an order relationship, regardless of site. An email address of another user is only returned if you and the other user are in an order relationship, within a certain time of order line item creation (although this limitation isn't applicable to the GetAllBidders call in the case of motor vehicles categories.) Based on Trust and Safety policies, the time is unspecified and can vary by site.

Since a bidder's user info is anonymous, this tag will be returned only to that bidder, and to the seller of an item that the user is bidding on.

For the order retrieval calls, the buyer's registration email address is only returned if the buyer is registered on the DE, AT, or CH sites, regardless of the seller's registration site and the site to which the seller sends the request.Max length:
64 for US. May differ for other countries. Note: The eBay database
allocates up to 128 characters for this field
.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

The aggregate feedback score for a user. A user's feedback score is the net positive feedback minus the net negative feedback left for the user. Feedback scores are a quantitative expression of the desirability of dealing with a user as a buyer or a seller in either side of an order. Each order line item can result in one feedback entry for a given user (the buyer can leave feedback for the seller, and the seller can leave feedback for the buyer.). That one feedback can be positive, negative, or neutral. The aggregated feedback counts for a particular user represent that user's overall feedback score (referred to as a "feedback rating" on the eBay site). If the user has chosen to make their feedback private and that user is not the user identified in the request's authentication token, FeedbackScore is not returned and FeedbackPrivate is returned with a value of true.

In GetMyeBayBuying and GetMyeBaySelling, feedback information (FeedbackScore and FeedbackRatingStar) is returned in BidList.ItemArray.Item.Seller. For GetMyeBayBuying, the feedback score of each seller with an item having received a bid from the buyer is returned. For GetMyeBaySelling, the feedback score of the seller is returned.

GetMyeBayBuying and GetMyeBaySelling also return feedback information (FeedbackScore and FeedbackRatingStar) in BidList.ItemArray.Item.SellingStatus.HighBidder. GetMyeBayBuying returns feedback information on the high bidder of each item the buyer is bidding on. GetMyeBaySelling returns feedback information on the high bidder of each item the seller is selling.

Since a bidder's user info is anonymous, the real feedback score will be returned only to that bidder, and to the seller of an item that the user is bidding on. For all other users, the value -99 is returned.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Contains the shipping address of a bidder who has made a best offer for an item.

You cannot retrieve a shipping address for any user with whom you do not have an order relationship, regardless of site. The shipping address of another user is returned only if you and the other user are in an order relationship, within a certain time of order line item creation.

Because a bidder's user information is anonymous, this container is returned only to that bidder, and to the seller of an item that the user is bidding on.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Since a bidder's user info is anonymous, this tag contains the actual value of an ID only for that bidder, and for the seller of an item that the user is bidding on. For other users, the actual value is replaced by an anonymous value, according to these rules:

When bidding on items, UserID is replaced with the value "a****b" where a and b are random characters from the UserID. For example, if the UserID = IBidALot, it might be displayed as, "I****A".

Note that in this format, the anonymous bidder ID can change for each auction.

For GetMyeBayBuying only, when bidding on items: UserID is replaced with the value "a****b" where a and b are random characters from the UserID.

When bidding on items listed on the the Philippines site: UserID is replaced with the value "Bidder X" where X is a number indicating the order of that user's first bid. For example, if the user was the third bidder, UserID = Bidder 3.

Note that in this Philippines site format, the anonymous bidder ID stays the same for a given auction, but is different for different auctions. For example, a bidder who is the third and then the seventh bidder in an auction will be listed for both bids as "Bidder 3". However, if that same bidder is the first bidder on a different auction, the bidder will be listed for that auction as "Bidder 1", not "Bidder 3".

For GetMyeBayBuying only, when bidding on items listed on the UK and AU sites: UserID is replaced with the string "High Bidder".

For PlaceOffer, see also SellingStatus.HighBidder.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

A prospective buyer has the option to include a comment when placing a Best Offer or making a counter offer to the seller's counter offer. This field will display that comment.Max length: 500 (in bytes).

This flag indicates if the seller is able to require immediate payment from the buyer for a Best Offer. This flag will only be returned if the Best Offer is part of eBay's Best Offer Beta program (value of NewBestOffer is 'true').

If the Immediate Payment for Best Offers feature is enabled for a listing, and a buyer's Best Offer for the item is accepted by the seller, that buyer will be expected to pay immediately for the item, or that buyer will run the risk of losing the item to another buyer since that item will remain on sale until payment is made.

The value of this boolean field will indicate whether or not the Best Offer is part of eBay's Best Offer Beta program, which allows sellers to require immediate payment from the buyer if both the seller and the buyer agree on a Best Offer. A 'true' value indicates that the Best Offer is part of the Best Offer Beta program, and a 'false' value indicates that the Best Offer is a standard Best Offer.

Currently, Immediate Payment for Best Offers will be supported by the Computers & Tablets, Jewelry & Watches, and Art categories, but this feature will get enabled in more categories going forward.

If the Immediate Payment for Best Offers feature is enabled for a listing, and a buyer's Best Offer for the item is accepted by the seller, that buyer will be expected to pay immediately for the item, or that buyer will run the risk of losing the item to another buyer since that item will remain on sale until payment is made.

The status of the Best Offer or counter offer. For PlaceOffer, the only applicable values are Accepted, AdminEnded, Declined, and Expired.

Applicable values:

Accepted

(out) Depending on context, this value can indicate that the buyer's Best offer was accepted by the seller, or that the seller's counter offer was accepted by the buyer.

Active

(in/out) Depending on context, this value can indicate that a buyer's Best Offer or a seller's counter offer is in the active state. The 'Active' value can also be used in the GetBestOffers request to retrieve only the Best Offers in the active state.

AdminEnded

(out) This value indicates that the Best Offer was ended by an eBay administrator.

All

(in/out) This value is used in the GetBestOffers request to retrieve all Best Offers in all states.

Countered

(out) This value indicates that a buyer's Best Offer has triggered a counter offer from the seller.

CustomCode

(out) Reserved for internal or future use.

Declined

(out) Depending on context, this value can indicate that the buyer's Best offer was declined by the seller, or that the seller's counter offer was declined by the buyer.

Expired

(out) Depending on context, this value can indicate that the buyer's Best Offer expired due to the passing of 48 hours with no seller response (accept, decline, counter offer), or that the seller's counter offer expired due to the passing of 48 hours with no buyer response (accept, decline, another Best Offer).

Pending

(out) This value indicates that the buyer's Best Offer on an item is awaiting the seller's response (accept, decline, counter offer). A buyer's Best Offer expires after 48 hours without a seller's response.

PendingBuyerConfirmation

(out) This value indicates that the seller is waiting on the buyer to commit to buying the item at the counter offer price.

PendingBuyerPayment

(out) This value indicates that the buyer has accepted the seller's counter offer, but the seller is still awaiting on payment from the buyer. If the buyer does not pay within 48 hours, the counter offer will expire.

Retracted

(out) Depending on context, this value can indicate that the buyer has retracted the Best Offer, or that the seller has retracted the counter offer.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Note: For the US site, users who are registering as eBay sellers for the first time are subject to seller limits which limit the quantity of items and/or the total listing value of the items. This applies to new sellers, not currently to existing sellers. (The GetMyeBaySelling call returns the remaining item quantity and remaining total value under the limits for the seller, if any such limits exist for the seller.) If a call to add an item or revise an item would result in the exceeding of these limits, the add item or revise item call will fail. For auctions, the value limits apply to the start price, not the final sale amount. For more information, see the link to Seller Limits below.

For auction listings, Buy It Now allows a user to purchase the item at a fixed price and end the auction immediately. Use this field to add Buy It Now and specify the amount a buyer would need to bid to take advantage of the Buy It Now feature.

On the main eBay site, not applicable to fixed-price items (ListingType values StoresFixedPrice or FixedPriceItem), AdFormat listings, or Half.com listings. For fixed-price and Half.com listings, see StartPrice instead. See Revising US eBay Motors Listings in the eBay Features Guide for validation rules when revising US eBay Motors listings, including rules for lowering the Buy It Now price of a Motors listing.

Once an auction has bids (and the high bid exceeds the reserve price, if specified), the listing is no longer eligible for Buy It Now (with some exceptions noted below). However, calls like GetItem and GetSearchResults still return the BuyItNowPrice that the seller originally set for the listing. You can use Item.SellingStatus.BidCount to determine whether an auction with Buy It Now has bids or not. With GetSearchResults, you can use the Item.SearchDetails.BuyItNowEnabled flag to determine whether the item can still be purchased using Buy It Now. With GetItem, you can use the Item.ListingDetails.BuyItNowAvailable flag to determine whether the item can still be purchased using Buy It Now.

There might be price limits imposed for Buy It Now items, subject to the seller's PayPal account or the payment method used. Such limits cannot be determined via the eBay API and are not covered in eBay's API documentation because they can vary for each user.

To remove this value when revising or relisting an item, use DeletedField.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Note: For the US site, users who are registering as eBay sellers for the first time are subject to seller limits which limit the quantity of items and/or the total listing value of the items. This applies to new sellers, not currently to existing sellers. (The GetMyeBaySelling call returns the remaining item quantity and remaining total value under the limits for the seller, if any such limits exist for the seller.) If a call to add an item or revise an item would result in the exceeding of these limits, the add item or revise item call will fail. For auctions, the value limits apply to the start price, not the final sale amount. For more information, see the link to Seller Limits below.

For auction listings, Buy It Now allows a user to purchase the item at a fixed price and end the auction immediately. Use this field to add Buy It Now and specify the amount a buyer would need to bid to take advantage of the Buy It Now feature.

On the main eBay site, not applicable to fixed-price items (ListingType values StoresFixedPrice or FixedPriceItem), AdFormat listings, or Half.com listings. For fixed-price and Half.com listings, see StartPrice instead. See Revising US eBay Motors Listings in the eBay Features Guide for validation rules when revising US eBay Motors listings, including rules for lowering the Buy It Now price of a Motors listing.

Once an auction has bids (and the high bid exceeds the reserve price, if specified), the listing is no longer eligible for Buy It Now (with some exceptions noted below). However, calls like GetItem and GetSearchResults still return the BuyItNowPrice that the seller originally set for the listing. You can use Item.SellingStatus.BidCount to determine whether an auction with Buy It Now has bids or not. With GetSearchResults, you can use the Item.SearchDetails.BuyItNowEnabled flag to determine whether the item can still be purchased using Buy It Now. With GetItem, you can use the Item.ListingDetails.BuyItNowAvailable flag to determine whether the item can still be purchased using Buy It Now.

There might be price limits imposed for Buy It Now items, subject to the seller's PayPal account or the payment method used. Such limits cannot be determined via the eBay API and are not covered in eBay's API documentation because they can vary for each user.

To remove this value when revising or relisting an item, use DeletedField.

Currency associated with the item's price information. 3-letter ISO 4217 currency code that corresponds to the site specified in the item-listing request. Also applicable as input to AddItem and related calls when you list items to Half.com (specify USD). You cannot modify a listing's currency when you revise or relist an item.

The ID that uniquely identifies the item listing. The ID is generated by eBay after an item is listed. You cannot choose or revise this value.

Also applicable to Half.com. For Half.com, you can specify either ItemID or SellerInventoryID in a ReviseItem request to uniquely identify the listing.

In order line item calls (e.g., GetItemTransactions), use a combination of OrderLineItemID to uniquely identify a order line item. With multi-quantity listings, a single ItemID can be associated with more than one TransactionID. (For single-quantity listings, the TransactionID is 0.)

In GetItemRecommendations, the item ID is required when the value of ListingFlow is ReviseItem or RelistItem, but it is not applicable when the value of ListingFlow is AddItem.

In GetSearchResults, the same ItemID may be returned for multiple results if the results are variations from the same mult-variation listing.

Note: Although we represent item IDs as strings in the schema, we recommend you store them as 64-bit signed integers. If you choose to store item IDs as strings, allocate at least 19 characters (assuming decimal digits are used) to hold them. eBay will increase the size of IDs over time. Your code should be prepared to handle IDs of up to 19 digits. For more information about item IDs, see Common FAQs on eBay Item IDs and other eBay IDs in the Knowledge Base.Max length: 19 (Note: the eBay database specifies 38. Currently, Item IDs are usually 9 to 12 digits).

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Various details about a listing, some of which are calculated or derived after the item is listed. These include the start and end time, converted (localized) prices, and certain flags that indicate whether the seller specified fields whose values are not visible to the requesting user. For GetMyeBayBuying, returned as a self-closed element if no listings meet the request criteria.

Not applicable to Half.com.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

All Best Offers for the item according to the filter or Best Offer ID (or both) used in the input. The buyer and seller messages are returned only if the detail level is defined. Includes the buyer and seller message only if detail level ReturnAll is used. Only returned if a Best Offer has been made.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

For GetBestOffers, each BestOffer container consists of detailed information on the Best Offer/Counter Offer, including the type of Best Offer (Best Offer, Buyer/Seller Counter Offer), amount of the Best Offer/Counter Offer, and status of Best Offer/Counter Offer.

For RespondToBestOffer, each BestOffer container provides the status ('Success' or 'Failure') of the Best Offer action (Accept, Counter, or Decline), which are defined in BestOfferActionCodeType.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Email address for the user. Please see the links below to the topics related to anonymous user information and static email addresses. You cannot retrieve an email address for any user with whom you do not have an order relationship, regardless of site. An email address of another user is only returned if you and the other user are in an order relationship, within a certain time of order line item creation (although this limitation isn't applicable to the GetAllBidders call in the case of motor vehicles categories.) Based on Trust and Safety policies, the time is unspecified and can vary by site.

Since a bidder's user info is anonymous, this tag will be returned only to that bidder, and to the seller of an item that the user is bidding on.

For the order retrieval calls, the buyer's registration email address is only returned if the buyer is registered on the DE, AT, or CH sites, regardless of the seller's registration site and the site to which the seller sends the request.Max length:
64 for US. May differ for other countries. Note: The eBay database
allocates up to 128 characters for this field
.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

The aggregate feedback score for a user. A user's feedback score is the net positive feedback minus the net negative feedback left for the user. Feedback scores are a quantitative expression of the desirability of dealing with a user as a buyer or a seller in either side of an order. Each order line item can result in one feedback entry for a given user (the buyer can leave feedback for the seller, and the seller can leave feedback for the buyer.). That one feedback can be positive, negative, or neutral. The aggregated feedback counts for a particular user represent that user's overall feedback score (referred to as a "feedback rating" on the eBay site). If the user has chosen to make their feedback private and that user is not the user identified in the request's authentication token, FeedbackScore is not returned and FeedbackPrivate is returned with a value of true.

In GetMyeBayBuying and GetMyeBaySelling, feedback information (FeedbackScore and FeedbackRatingStar) is returned in BidList.ItemArray.Item.Seller. For GetMyeBayBuying, the feedback score of each seller with an item having received a bid from the buyer is returned. For GetMyeBaySelling, the feedback score of the seller is returned.

GetMyeBayBuying and GetMyeBaySelling also return feedback information (FeedbackScore and FeedbackRatingStar) in BidList.ItemArray.Item.SellingStatus.HighBidder. GetMyeBayBuying returns feedback information on the high bidder of each item the buyer is bidding on. GetMyeBaySelling returns feedback information on the high bidder of each item the seller is selling.

Since a bidder's user info is anonymous, the real feedback score will be returned only to that bidder, and to the seller of an item that the user is bidding on. For all other users, the value -99 is returned.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Contains the shipping address of a bidder who has made a best offer for an item.

You cannot retrieve a shipping address for any user with whom you do not have an order relationship, regardless of site. The shipping address of another user is returned only if you and the other user are in an order relationship, within a certain time of order line item creation.

Because a bidder's user information is anonymous, this container is returned only to that bidder, and to the seller of an item that the user is bidding on.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Since a bidder's user info is anonymous, this tag contains the actual value of an ID only for that bidder, and for the seller of an item that the user is bidding on. For other users, the actual value is replaced by an anonymous value, according to these rules:

When bidding on items, UserID is replaced with the value "a****b" where a and b are random characters from the UserID. For example, if the UserID = IBidALot, it might be displayed as, "I****A".

Note that in this format, the anonymous bidder ID can change for each auction.

For GetMyeBayBuying only, when bidding on items: UserID is replaced with the value "a****b" where a and b are random characters from the UserID.

When bidding on items listed on the the Philippines site: UserID is replaced with the value "Bidder X" where X is a number indicating the order of that user's first bid. For example, if the user was the third bidder, UserID = Bidder 3.

Note that in this Philippines site format, the anonymous bidder ID stays the same for a given auction, but is different for different auctions. For example, a bidder who is the third and then the seventh bidder in an auction will be listed for both bids as "Bidder 3". However, if that same bidder is the first bidder on a different auction, the bidder will be listed for that auction as "Bidder 1", not "Bidder 3".

For GetMyeBayBuying only, when bidding on items listed on the UK and AU sites: UserID is replaced with the string "High Bidder".

For PlaceOffer, see also SellingStatus.HighBidder.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

A prospective buyer has the option to include a comment when placing a Best Offer or making a counter offer to the seller's counter offer. This field will display that comment.Max length: 500 (in bytes).

This flag indicates if the seller is able to require immediate payment from the buyer for a Best Offer. This flag will only be returned if the Best Offer is part of eBay's Best Offer Beta program (value of NewBestOffer is 'true').

If the Immediate Payment for Best Offers feature is enabled for a listing, and a buyer's Best Offer for the item is accepted by the seller, that buyer will be expected to pay immediately for the item, or that buyer will run the risk of losing the item to another buyer since that item will remain on sale until payment is made.

The value of this boolean field will indicate whether or not the Best Offer is part of eBay's Best Offer Beta program, which allows sellers to require immediate payment from the buyer if both the seller and the buyer agree on a Best Offer. A 'true' value indicates that the Best Offer is part of the Best Offer Beta program, and a 'false' value indicates that the Best Offer is a standard Best Offer.

Currently, Immediate Payment for Best Offers will be supported by the Computers & Tablets, Jewelry & Watches, and Art categories, but this feature will get enabled in more categories going forward.

If the Immediate Payment for Best Offers feature is enabled for a listing, and a buyer's Best Offer for the item is accepted by the seller, that buyer will be expected to pay immediately for the item, or that buyer will run the risk of losing the item to another buyer since that item will remain on sale until payment is made.

The status of the Best Offer or counter offer. For PlaceOffer, the only applicable values are Accepted, AdminEnded, Declined, and Expired.

Applicable values:

Accepted

(out) Depending on context, this value can indicate that the buyer's Best offer was accepted by the seller, or that the seller's counter offer was accepted by the buyer.

Active

(in/out) Depending on context, this value can indicate that a buyer's Best Offer or a seller's counter offer is in the active state. The 'Active' value can also be used in the GetBestOffers request to retrieve only the Best Offers in the active state.

AdminEnded

(out) This value indicates that the Best Offer was ended by an eBay administrator.

All

(in/out) This value is used in the GetBestOffers request to retrieve all Best Offers in all states.

Countered

(out) This value indicates that a buyer's Best Offer has triggered a counter offer from the seller.

CustomCode

(out) Reserved for internal or future use.

Declined

(out) Depending on context, this value can indicate that the buyer's Best offer was declined by the seller, or that the seller's counter offer was declined by the buyer.

Expired

(out) Depending on context, this value can indicate that the buyer's Best Offer expired due to the passing of 48 hours with no seller response (accept, decline, counter offer), or that the seller's counter offer expired due to the passing of 48 hours with no buyer response (accept, decline, another Best Offer).

Pending

(out) This value indicates that the buyer's Best Offer on an item is awaiting the seller's response (accept, decline, counter offer). A buyer's Best Offer expires after 48 hours without a seller's response.

PendingBuyerConfirmation

(out) This value indicates that the seller is waiting on the buyer to commit to buying the item at the counter offer price.

PendingBuyerPayment

(out) This value indicates that the buyer has accepted the seller's counter offer, but the seller is still awaiting on payment from the buyer. If the buyer does not pay within 48 hours, the counter offer will expire.

Retracted

(out) Depending on context, this value can indicate that the buyer has retracted the Best Offer, or that the seller has retracted the counter offer.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Note: For the US site, users who are registering as eBay sellers for the first time are subject to seller limits which limit the quantity of items and/or the total listing value of the items. This applies to new sellers, not currently to existing sellers. (The GetMyeBaySelling call returns the remaining item quantity and remaining total value under the limits for the seller, if any such limits exist for the seller.) If a call to add an item or revise an item would result in the exceeding of these limits, the add item or revise item call will fail. For auctions, the value limits apply to the start price, not the final sale amount. For more information, see the link to Seller Limits below.

For auction listings, Buy It Now allows a user to purchase the item at a fixed price and end the auction immediately. Use this field to add Buy It Now and specify the amount a buyer would need to bid to take advantage of the Buy It Now feature.

On the main eBay site, not applicable to fixed-price items (ListingType values StoresFixedPrice or FixedPriceItem), AdFormat listings, or Half.com listings. For fixed-price and Half.com listings, see StartPrice instead. See Revising US eBay Motors Listings in the eBay Features Guide for validation rules when revising US eBay Motors listings, including rules for lowering the Buy It Now price of a Motors listing.

Once an auction has bids (and the high bid exceeds the reserve price, if specified), the listing is no longer eligible for Buy It Now (with some exceptions noted below). However, calls like GetItem and GetSearchResults still return the BuyItNowPrice that the seller originally set for the listing. You can use Item.SellingStatus.BidCount to determine whether an auction with Buy It Now has bids or not. With GetSearchResults, you can use the Item.SearchDetails.BuyItNowEnabled flag to determine whether the item can still be purchased using Buy It Now. With GetItem, you can use the Item.ListingDetails.BuyItNowAvailable flag to determine whether the item can still be purchased using Buy It Now.

There might be price limits imposed for Buy It Now items, subject to the seller's PayPal account or the payment method used. Such limits cannot be determined via the eBay API and are not covered in eBay's API documentation because they can vary for each user.

To remove this value when revising or relisting an item, use DeletedField.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Note: For the US site, users who are registering as eBay sellers for the first time are subject to seller limits which limit the quantity of items and/or the total listing value of the items. This applies to new sellers, not currently to existing sellers. (The GetMyeBaySelling call returns the remaining item quantity and remaining total value under the limits for the seller, if any such limits exist for the seller.) If a call to add an item or revise an item would result in the exceeding of these limits, the add item or revise item call will fail. For auctions, the value limits apply to the start price, not the final sale amount. For more information, see the link to Seller Limits below.

For auction listings, Buy It Now allows a user to purchase the item at a fixed price and end the auction immediately. Use this field to add Buy It Now and specify the amount a buyer would need to bid to take advantage of the Buy It Now feature.

On the main eBay site, not applicable to fixed-price items (ListingType values StoresFixedPrice or FixedPriceItem), AdFormat listings, or Half.com listings. For fixed-price and Half.com listings, see StartPrice instead. See Revising US eBay Motors Listings in the eBay Features Guide for validation rules when revising US eBay Motors listings, including rules for lowering the Buy It Now price of a Motors listing.

Once an auction has bids (and the high bid exceeds the reserve price, if specified), the listing is no longer eligible for Buy It Now (with some exceptions noted below). However, calls like GetItem and GetSearchResults still return the BuyItNowPrice that the seller originally set for the listing. You can use Item.SellingStatus.BidCount to determine whether an auction with Buy It Now has bids or not. With GetSearchResults, you can use the Item.SearchDetails.BuyItNowEnabled flag to determine whether the item can still be purchased using Buy It Now. With GetItem, you can use the Item.ListingDetails.BuyItNowAvailable flag to determine whether the item can still be purchased using Buy It Now.

There might be price limits imposed for Buy It Now items, subject to the seller's PayPal account or the payment method used. Such limits cannot be determined via the eBay API and are not covered in eBay's API documentation because they can vary for each user.

To remove this value when revising or relisting an item, use DeletedField.

Currency associated with the item's price information. 3-letter ISO 4217 currency code that corresponds to the site specified in the item-listing request. Also applicable as input to AddItem and related calls when you list items to Half.com (specify USD). You cannot modify a listing's currency when you revise or relist an item.

The ID that uniquely identifies the item listing. The ID is generated by eBay after an item is listed. You cannot choose or revise this value.

Also applicable to Half.com. For Half.com, you can specify either ItemID or SellerInventoryID in a ReviseItem request to uniquely identify the listing.

In order line item calls (e.g., GetItemTransactions), use a combination of OrderLineItemID to uniquely identify a order line item. With multi-quantity listings, a single ItemID can be associated with more than one TransactionID. (For single-quantity listings, the TransactionID is 0.)

In GetItemRecommendations, the item ID is required when the value of ListingFlow is ReviseItem or RelistItem, but it is not applicable when the value of ListingFlow is AddItem.

In GetSearchResults, the same ItemID may be returned for multiple results if the results are variations from the same mult-variation listing.

Note: Although we represent item IDs as strings in the schema, we recommend you store them as 64-bit signed integers. If you choose to store item IDs as strings, allocate at least 19 characters (assuming decimal digits are used) to hold them. eBay will increase the size of IDs over time. Your code should be prepared to handle IDs of up to 19 digits. For more information about item IDs, see Common FAQs on eBay Item IDs and other eBay IDs in the Knowledge Base.Max length: 19 (Note: the eBay database specifies 38. Currently, Item IDs are usually 9 to 12 digits).

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Various details about a listing, some of which are calculated or derived after the item is listed. These include the start and end time, converted (localized) prices, and certain flags that indicate whether the seller specified fields whose values are not visible to the requesting user. For GetMyeBayBuying, returned as a self-closed element if no listings meet the request criteria.

Not applicable to Half.com.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Indicates whether the eBay user is in the Buyer or Seller role for the corresponding Best Offer.

Applicable values:

Buyer

(in/out) The eBay user is acting as the buyer for the order(s). In GetOrders, this value should be passed into the OrderRole field in the request to retrieve orders in which the calling eBay user is the buyer in the order.

CustomCode

(in/out) This value is reserved for future or internal use.

Seller

(in/out) The eBay user is acting as the seller for the order(s). In GetOrders, this value should be passed into the OrderRole field in the request to retrieve orders in which the calling eBay user is the seller in the order.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

Specifies the number of the page of data to return in the response. Default is 1 for most calls. For some calls, the default is 0. Specify a positive value equal to or lower than the number of pages available (which you determine by examining the results of your initial request). See the documentation for other individual calls to determine the correct default value. For GetOrders, PageNumber is only applicable to Half.com (is not applicable to eBay.com).Min: 1.
Default: 1.

DetailLevel: ReturnAll. Also returned if DetailLevel is not provided on input.

This refers to the specific software build that eBay used when processing the request and generating the response. This includes the version number plus additional information. eBay Developer Support may request the build information when helping you resolve technical issues.

Most Trading API calls support a MessageID element in the request and a CorrelationID element in the response. If you pass in a MessageID in a request, the same value will be returned in the CorrelationID field in the response. Pairing these values can help you track and confirm that a response is returned for every request and to match specific responses to specific requests. If you do not pass a MessageID value in the request, CorrelationID is not returned.

Note:GetCategories is designed to retrieve very large sets of metadata that change once a day or less often. To improve performance, these calls return cached responses when you request all available data (with no filters). When this occurs, the MessageID and CorrelationID fields aren't applicable. However, if you specify an input filter to reduce the amount of data returned, the calls retrieve the latest data (not cached). When this occurs, MessageID and CorrelationID are applicable.

API errors are divided between two classes: system errors and request errors.

Applicable values:

CustomCode

(out) Reserved for internal or future use.

RequestError

(out) An error has occurred either as a result of a problem in the sending application or because the application's end-user has attempted to submit invalid data (or missing data). In these cases, do not retry the request. The problem must be corrected before the request can be made again. If the problem is due to something in the application (such as a missing required field), the application must be changed. If the problem is a result of end-user data, the application must alert the end-user to the problem and provide the means for the end-user to correct the data. Once the problem in the application or data is resolved, resend the request to eBay with the corrected data.

SystemError

(out) Indicates that an error has occurred on the eBay system side, such as a database or server down. An application can retry the request as-is a reasonable number of times (eBay recommends twice). If the error persists, contact Developer Technical Support. Once the problem has been resolved, the request may be resent in its original form.

A unique code that identifies the particular error condition that occurred. Your application can use error codes as identifiers in your customized error-handling algorithms. See the "Errors by Number" document.

Indicates whether the error is a severe error (causing the request to fail) or an informational error (a warning) that should be communicated to the user.

Applicable values:

CustomCode

(out) Reserved for internal or future use.

Error

(out) The request that triggered the error was not processed successfully. When a serious application-level error occurs, the error is returned instead of the business data.

If the source of the problem is within the application (such as a missing required element), change the application before you retry the request.

If the problem is due to end-user input data, please alert the end-user to the problem and provide the means for them to correct the data. Once the problem in the application or data is resolved, you can attempt to re-send the request to eBay.

If the source of the problem is on eBay's side, An application can retry the request as-is a reasonable number of times (eBay recommends twice). If the error persists, contact Developer Technical Support. Once the problem has been resolved, the request may be resent in its original form.

(out) The request was processed successfully, but something occurred that may affect your application or the user. For example, eBay may have changed a value the user sent in. In this case, eBay returns a normal, successful response and also returns the warning.

When a warning occurs, the error is returned in addition to the business data. In this case, you do not need to retry the request (as the original request was successful). However, depending on the cause or nature of the warning, you might need to contact either the end user or eBay to effect a long term solution to the problem to prevent it from reoccurring in the future.

Expiration date of the user's authentication token. Only returned within the 7-day period prior to a token's expiration. To ensure that user authentication tokens are secure and to help avoid a user's token being compromised, tokens have a limited life span. A token is only valid for a period of time (set by eBay). After this amount of time has passed, the token expires and must be replaced with a new token.

This value represents the date and time when eBay processed the request. The time zone of this value is GMT and the format is the ISO 8601 date and time format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.SSSZ). See the Time Values section in the eBay Features Guide for information about this time format and converting to and from the GMT time zone.

Note:GetCategories and other Trading API calls are designed to retrieve very large sets of metadata that change once a day or less often. To improve performance, these calls return cached responses when you request all available data (with no filters). When this occurs, this time value reflects the time the cached response was created. Thus, this value is not necessarily when the request was processed. However, if you specify an input filter to reduce the amount of data returned, the calls retrieve the latest data (not cached). When this occurs, this time value does reflect when the request was processed.

The version of the response payload schema. Indicates the version of the schema that eBay used to process the request. See the Standard Data for All Calls section in the eBay Features Guide for information on using the response version when troubleshooting CustomCode values that appear in the response.

Change History

Change Date

Description

8632014-02-25

BestOffer.Buyer.ShippingAddress (added): This container returns the shipping address of a bidder who has made a best offer for an item. Because a bidder's user information is anonymous, this container is returned only to that bidder, and to the seller of an item that the user is bidding on.

8492013-11-05

BestOffer.NewBestOffer (added): This boolean field will indicate whether the Best Offer is a traditional Best Offer ('false' value) or if the Best Offer is part of the Best Offer Beta program where a Best Offer that has been accepted by the seller is not binding until the buyer either pays for, or commits to buying the item.

BestOffer.ImmediatePayEligible (added): This boolean field will indicate whether the seller is eligible to require immediate payment for the Best Offer. This field is only returned if the Best Offer is part of the Best Offer Beta program.

8212013-04-24

BestOfferArray.BestOffer.Status (modified):
Two new values added to BestOfferStatusCodeType. 'PendingBuyerConfirmation' will
be returned if the seller is waiting on the buyer to commit to buying the item at
the counter offer price. 'PendingBuyerPayment' will be returned if the seller is
still awaiting on payment from the buyer. If the buyer does not pay within 48
hours, the counter offer will expire.

6632010-03-31

(modified)
You can now omit both ItemID and BestOfferID when calling GetBestOffers. In such,
it returns a list of up to 1,000 IDs for best offers submitted by the user (as a
bidder) and up to 10,000 IDs for best offers received by the user (as a seller).
When the filter "All" is used in this case (when both ItemID
and BestOfferID are omitted), its behavior is not "all" but is
instead "active best offers only" (i.e. the same as Active).

6372009-09-30

ItemBestOfferArrayType.ItemBestOffers (added): A collection of details about the best offers received for a specific item.

ItemBestOffersType.Role,ItemBestOffersType.BestOfferArray,ItemBestOffersType.Item, (added): All best offers for the item according to the filter or best offer
id (or both) used in the input.

GetBestOffersRequestType.Pagination (added): Specifies how to create virtual pages in the returned list (such as total
number of entries and total number of pages to return).

GetBestOffersResponseType.ItemBestOfferArray,GetBestOffersResponseType.PageNumber,GetBestOffersResponseType.PaginationResult (added): All best offers for the item according to the filter or best offer
id (or both) used in the input.

5392007-11-14

(added)
A buyer can make a GetBestOffers call to see the buyer's best offer
(BestOfferID, etc.) and the current state of the best
offer (e.g., whether the seller has made a counter offer).

5172007-06-13

DetailLevel (added):
The ReturnAll detail level has been added to GetBestOffers.
If you specify ReturnAll in the DetailLevel field,
the response can include the BuyerMessage field in the BestOffer container.

4992007-02-07

GetBestOffers (modified): GetBestOffers now returns Best Offers that come in through Classified Ad listings.